A New Legionary Epitaph from Venice

This article presents a fragmentary and hitherto unpublished inscribed funerary stele, which was reused in Venice as an architectural spolium and has recently come to light. The text, written in Latin, is very likely to be the epitaph for a legionary, whose name is unknown since it occupied the part of the inscription that has not survived. Archaeological data and textual analysis suggest that the inscribed stone dates to the 1st - early 2nd centuries AD and probably came to Venice from the Eastern shores of the Adriatic. It also seems likely that the legionary mentioned in the fragmentary text was a native of Narbonese Gaul who died in Dalmatia or in Aquileia. The inscription can perhaps be associated with another funerary stele (CIL V 2162), which was reused in the base of the nearby San Vidal bell-tower.